Italian police: Muslim migrants threw Christians overboard

Rome (CNN)

Muslims
who were among migrants trying to get from Libya to Italy in a boat
this week threw 12 fellow passengers overboard -- killing them --
because the 12 were Christians, Italian police said Thursday.

Italian authorities have arrested 15 people on suspicion of murdering the Christians at sea, police in Palermo, Sicily, said.

The
original group of 105 people left Libya on Tuesday in a rubber boat.
Sometime during the trip north across the Mediterranean Sea, the alleged
assailants -- Muslims from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal -- threw
the 12 overboard, police said.

Other
people on the voyage told police that they themselves were spared
"because they strongly opposed the drowning attempt and formed a human
chain," Palermo police said.

The
boat was intercepted by an Italian navy vessel, which transferred the
passengers to a Panamanian-flagged ship. That ship docked in Palermo on
Wednesday, after which the arrests were made, police said.

The 12 who died were from Nigeria and Ghana, police said.

Thousands
of people each year make the dangerous sea journey from North Africa to
Europe's Mediterranean coast, often aboard vessels poorly equipped for
the trip. Many of them attempt the voyage to flee war and poverty in
Africa and the Middle East.

More than 10,000 people have arrived on Italian shores from Libya since last weekend alone, according to

Many
die each year while attempting the voyage, often when boats capsized.
Last year at least 3,200 died trying to make the trip. Since 2000,
according to the International Organization for Migration, almost 22,000
people have died fleeing across the Mediterranean.

The
IOM reported Thursday the latest boat to sink in trying to make the
journey. Only four people survived from the original 45 on board,
bringing the estimated death toll so far this year close to a thousand.

Why migrants are risking their lives to reach Italy

Rome (CNN)

A
destination for the destitute, Sicily is the "promised land" for
thousands of migrants and refugees making the desperate journey from
North Africa to Europe's Mediterranean coast. More than 10,000 people
have arrived from Libya since last weekend alone, according to the Italian Coast Guard.

Stories
of death at sea and unimaginable suffering are nothing new in the
waters between North Africa and Italy; boat people have been arriving on
Italy's islands for more than a decade.

But
what makes the current influx different is the increase in numbers and
the absence of control from the ports of embarkation, specifically those
in Libya, because when Moammar Gadhafi was in control, he also
controlled the flow of migrant ships.

In 2008, the-then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Gadhafi signed an historic friendship agreement
in which Italy promised to invest $5 billion in Libyan infrastructure
and Gadhafi promised to close what he described as a "spigot" of
migrants. During a three-day state visit to Italy in August 2010, he
famously threatened to "turn Europe black" if Libya did not enjoy cordial relations with the European Union.

Charity: Migrant ship carrying hundreds capsizes

After the agreement, Gadhafi kept his promise and the number of arrivals drastically decreased.

For
a time, almost all migrant arrivals came from Tunisia, just 70 miles
from the Italian island of Lampedusa. Because Italy sent most of those
migrants who did not qualify for political asylum back to Tunisia, the
flow eventually tapered off. And once a new Tunisian government was in
place, after the Arab Spring, Italy signed an accord with Tunisia in
which they promised to help patrol Tunisia's ports.

In October 2013, after a tragic boat accident off the coast of Lampedusa
in which 349 people -- including an infant still attached to its mother
by the umbilical cord -- died, trapped like sardines in their
smugglers' boat as it sank, Italy decided it had to act.

African migrants' perilous route

In
November of 2013, the Italian Navy launched a €9M-a-month
search-and-rescue program called Mare Nostrum, in which Italian naval
ships patrolled the seas to rescue migrants. In just one year, the
program rescued more than 160,000 migrants, according to the Italian Navy.

Due
to budget constraints and criticism from the European Union that the
program itself was encouraging migrants to head across the
Mediterranean, the mission ended in October 2014. By the end of the
year, more than 174,000 people had been rescued in Italy; an estimated 3,072 people died making the journey, according to the IOM.

The bodies of migrants washed up on the shores of Lampedusa are buried in the local cemetery

In November last year, the European Union's border control, Frontex, started its own mission -- Triton -- with a budget of less than a third that of Mare Nostrum. Frontex
has no vessels or surveillance equipment of its own, so has to rely on
European member states to lend them ships; a ship from Iceland, at the
far north of the continent, is currently involved in Frontex's operations off southern Europe.

When
Italy ended Mare Nostrum, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Antonio Guterres warned that some European governments were making
"keeping foreigners out a higher priority than upholding asylum
standards."

"This is a mistake, and precisely the wrong reaction for an era in which record numbers of people are fleeing wars," Guterres told a UNHCR policy meeting.
"Security and immigration management are concerns for any country, but
policies must be designed in a way that human lives do not end up
becoming collateral damage."

Lampedusa: Refugees' gateway to Europe

Once
migrants arrive in Italy, they are supposed to be processed for
political asylum and monitored until it is granted or denied, but Italy
has been sanctioned by the European Union for not fingerprinting new
arrivals.

By law, Italy has to take
care of the arrivals, but many have no intention of staying in the
country, and few of the reception centers are gated, meaning migrants
can come and go as they please. And with no physical border controls
between Italy and other European countries, they can then disperse
across the continent.

Moutassem Yazbek,
27, an IT specialist who worked for six years in Dubai, arrived in
Sicily in December on board a smuggler's boat. He told CNN he was never
fingerprinted in Italy, and eventually made it to Germany where he is
studying to learn the language and find work.

He says the human trafficking network is a finely-oiled machine that fills a growing need.

"I
would have done anything to get here," Yazbek said. "It was worth the
risk, the bad treatment and the fear. Hard as that may be to believe, it
is a better life."

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About Me

Ambassador T. Brikins is a Writer Blogger, Mass Communications Consultant and Inforpreneur having experiences in the National News Media, Oil and Gas, Administration, University and the Church of Christ..
He is C.E.O. @ New Direction Communications..
He is an ordained Minister and heavily imparted by Dr. David Oyedepo, Pastor E.A.Adeboye, Rev.Roselyn Oduyemi, Kenneth Copeland,Dr. D.Yongi Cho, Apostle Alex Bamgbola, Kenneth E. Hagin, Apostle G. Oduyemi, Archbishop Benson Idahosa, T.L. Osborn,Dr. E.W. Kenyon , Oral Roberts and many more.
Ambassador T. Brikins runs with the visions of Isaiah 11:9; Matthew 23:23 and 11 Corinthians 5:16-21 working with the Lord for their practical expressions in every area of life. .
He lives in Lagos, Nigeria.
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